Why do gamers not vote with their wallets?

[OilFreak]

We've seen time and time again that gamers will put tons of money into shitty games, either because it's part of an ip they like, or the previous games in the series were good. Think recent Mario Parties, No Man's Sky at launch, SW Batllefront 2, ect.
This kind of thing doesn't happen with movies or TV. Movie theaters have been struggling lately because, despite the onslaught of remakes using beloved IP's, nobody wants to see bad movies. I suspect the Borderlands movie will end up being a commercial failure, yet if a bad Borderlands game came out, people would buy it.
Why is this? Why are people so willing to buy bad games?

 

[The Catboy]

Gamers are dumb

 

[Kioku]

Collectively, our IQ is lower than the average classroom of second graders. We talk a big game, but choose to play them more.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

We've seen time and time again that gamers will put tons of money into shitty games, either because it's part of an ip they like, or the previous games in the series were good. Think recent Mario Parties, No Man's Sky at launch, SW Batllefront 2, ect.
This kind of thing doesn't happen with movies or TV. Movie theaters have been struggling lately because, despite the onslaught of remakes using beloved IP's, nobody wants to see bad movies. I suspect the Borderlands movie will end up being a commercial failure, yet if a bad Borderlands game came out, people would buy it.
Why is this? Why are people so willing to buy bad games?

There's a lot more selection in movies. If a movie is bad, you just watch something else. It's only a couple hours long anyway so you aren't too attached to it. Depending on what you're in the mood for, something else in the same genre could scratch the itch.

But if the new game in your favorite franchise is bad, while you could play something else, it won't hit quite the same. Even a "bad" entry can scratch that itch better than another game would. Going back and replaying an older entry is always an option (and I love doing that on occasion) but you can only do that so often. Replaying a game you know well isn't exactly the same as experiencing a new one for the first time, either.

And I feel like games within the same genre differ a lot more than movies within the same genre typically do. Which makes it harder to substitute for something else.

Take Pokemon for example, there are plenty of RPGs but there's nothing else quite like it (there are many copycats though, but they don't quite scratch the same itch for me at least)

Same thing with Zelda, TotK has been a disappointment for me because after BotW I was ready for a new traditional Zelda game or at least with more traditional Zelda elements mixed in and we didn't get one. I liked BotW, but it didn't scratch the Zelda itch for me. I feel like even OoT had more story than that, and the dungeons/bosses were actually fun to go through. I don't love TP or SS either, liked them well enough at the time but find they don't hold up to repeated replays and they don't hold a candle to OoT, MM or WW, so really it feels like I haven't played a truly excellent Zelda game since WW. Which makes the need all the greater.
I haven't been able to get myself to play TotK beyond getting off the starting area. I'm sure I'll play through it eventually, but it just isn't what I want right now.

Mario Party Superstars is pretty good though. Super Mario Party was not half bad either, not worth going back to over and over when there are other entries I prefer over it, but still fun to revisit every now and then.
If they took the same approach to Mario Party as they have been doing with Mario Kart, with a mix of new and old stages/minigames, I think it could be a winner.

 

[AncientBoi]

Arrrrrrgh Matey. Lemme finish downloading a game, before I answer ye question. Arrrrrrgh

 

[Chary]

I think a simpler excuse is that even with how big gaming is, a lot of that market are kids, who don't know better or dont care. Or adults who don't follow with their finger on the pulse of gaming drama and just buy new big AAA games without researching. We are the niche.

 

[Armadillo]

Other media has actual critics as well, so if something is dogshit, people will know it about.

Gaming on the other hand, for the most part is just hype men and propaganda for the gaming companies and most stuff will get at least 7/10 and people fall for it.

Borderlands film is getting torn to bits, if it was a new Borderlands game, at worst it would be 7/10 with something like "good ideas but poorly executed, but if you're a fan you may get some enjoyment". Never would it get torn to bits by gaming media because it's a big name and "critics" don't want to rock the gravy boat.

 

[Veho]

Gamers do vote with their wallets, but since wallets can only vote "yes" or "sustained", "negative" votes don't mean much.

Why is this? Why are people so willing to buy bad games?

Because they enjoy them? There's no accounting for taste.

 

[CallmeBerto]

Easy, average person doesn't care and doesn't have a reddit or GBAtemp account; doesn't follow gaming news as closely as we do etc. We are a lot more niche then we think we are.

 

[Reiten]

We do vote with our wallets, it's just that the impact, in most cases, isn't big enough to send a message. You'd probably need to get people to boycott a AAA title on a global scale to cause any impact, and let's face it that won't be happening.

 

[DTApple]

"Bad" is subjective here. Typically, I'll purchase whatever I think I'll enjoy.

 

[CoolMe]

I do. "Arrr!" and stuff

 

[Windaga]

Easy, average person doesn't care and doesn't have a reddit or GBAtemp account; doesn't follow gaming news as closely as we do etc. We are a lot more niche then we think we are.

I second this, and would also argue that this is the case for most communities. Not to downplay the size of online communities, but the internet has led us to believe that what we see online represents the totality of opinions in any given community.

When we see people on a forum (or in the comments of a critics review) dunking on a game because it can't hold a steady 60fps, there are hundreds of thousands of people (if not millions in some cases) that'll pick the game up, have fun with it, and won't think twice about it. Some things are glaringly obvious and there are exceptions, of course, but the majority of players for most Pokemon games, for example, aren't going to read IGN's review of a game, let alone let it effect their purchase decisions.

 

[spinal_cord]

You don't know a game is crap until after you've paid for it. You don't trust other peoples opinion because they might have different taste to you. If ALL games had a demo released a while before the release date, people might find out beforehand if the game is good or bad and buy accordingly.
When I grew up, computer magazines had demos of all sorts of games and I was only ever tempted to buy maybe 4 or 5 fames because most were garbage. If id hadn't had that experience I would have flushed a lot more money down the drain buying terrible games.

 

[JustABadger]

Because “bad” often simply means “has been adapted to the general audience”. Even if old fans stop buying, the wave of new fans will.

That, and peer pressure. If your group of friends is playing the game, you are too. Common middle school logic that expands well into adulthood.